Telcos meet TRAI; allege tariff order violation by RJio

New Delhi: Charging new entrant Reliance Jio of violating tariff order, incumbent operators such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone on Friday met regulator Trai on the issue – a new front in the ongoing war between the two sides over the points of interconnection.

"The TRAI Chairman listened to us...he is examining the matter and will get back to us, at the earliest," Vodafone India Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sunil Sood said.

The operators who met the TRAI Chairman include Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, Telenor amongst others. TRAI Chairman R S Sharma had called the meeting as some telecom service companies wrote to the regulator alleging that Reliance Jio has violated some (tariff) order.

Incumbent operators Airtel, Vodafone and Idea are locked in a battle with Reliance Jio over the issue of network connectivity.

Reliance Jio -- a newcomer in the 4G market -- has accused incumbent operators, including Airtel, of providing far less than adequate points of interconnection (PoIs) needed for its users zo complete a call to a rival network, while the operators have charged the new entrant of unleashing a "tsunami" of free traffic on their networks.

Interconnection enables mobile users to make calls to customers of other telecom networks and is, therefore, crucial for smooth functioning of mobile service.

Jio argues that benefits of superior voice technology is being denied to its customers due to the network congestion and has blamed the "anti-competitive behaviour of incumbent operators" for the "poor experience" on its services.

Following Reliance Jio's complaint of call failures, Trai earlier this week said it will issue showcause notices to operators for call drops that are far exceeding the norm.